Globetrotting Singaporeans told not to abuse consular services

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Singapore's foreign minister yesterday urged his globetrotting countrymen to be more considerate of the city-state's consular services and revealed cases of abuse, including a man's demand for help getting a refund for sexual services.

K. Shanmugam, who is also the law minister, said in a Facebook post that the number of overseas trips made by Singaporeans had surged to seven million last year, compared to 3.6 million a decade ago.

"We handled over 3,000 consular cases last year. Many cases are genuine. But sometimes we do get odd requests," Shanmugam said.

In one instance, a man sought help "for a refund after he had gotten illegal sexual services in a foreign country". "He wasn't satisfied with what he had gotten. We had to tell him [we] could not help," Shanmugam said.

Shanmugam said the ministry also declined to intervene when a man demanded an investigation over alleged racial discrimination while overseas.

The man had claimed "he received a smaller piece of KFC chicken compared to what the locals had".